The Buzz

Even the most beautiful women in the world have beauty complexes, including pageant queen and winner of Mrs Australia, Kate Johnson. This inspirational model is always using her beauty for the greater good, and was even discovered during the 2007 Pink Ribbon Campaign to promote breast cancer awareness. Now in 2014, she wears the crown as Mrs Australia and as an ambassador of Beautiful You Australia, she hopes to redefine beauty.

Kate admits she has been a victim of the media’s portrayal of what beauty should be in her teenage years, thinking that glossy magazines and TV showcased the most beautiful people this world has to offer. “It killed me inside that I looked nothing like them,” she tells theFashionSpot. “Thankfully, my own life experiences have knocked some sense into me.”

Today, Kate sees beauty in the little quirks that separate us from the pack, making reference to model Jess Hart’s gap-toothed smile. But at the same time, this charitable model wants to unlink beauty and the exterior.

“Physical beauty is admirable, though definitely not what turns my head the most,” she explains. “How you feel and how you make someone else feel is the most beautiful thing in the world. I am a big believer in beauty coming from the heart.”

Image: Natalie Roser/ Beautiful You Australia

But as a model, she’s hoping that the media can clean up its act to help stop the diminishing of self-esteem in society.

“Models play a huge role in mass media, influencing what society views as the ideal body type,” she says. “In the years I’ve been modelling, I’ve not personally worked with or come across any models with an eating disorder. Though the fact it happens elsewhere means we’re all tarnished with the same brush.”

On September 13 and 14, Kate will step up to the plate as celebrity ambassador for Beautiful You Australia alongside Jules Sebastian and Carmelo Pizzino, and she couldn’t be happier about being able to pass her message on to others. “It’s important for young girls to know that models, and pageant queens for that matter, aren’t perfect, so there’s no need for them to be,” she explains.

If you’re also wanting to put an end to the endless battle of defining beauty, looking for a little bit of positive reinforcement or would like to meet Kate in the flesh, you can buy tickets to the event here.

It’s a double win for Melbourne-based label Strateas.Carlucci, taking out both the menswear and womenswear categories of the International Woolmark Prize Australia Regional Final. By winning not just one, but two categories, design duo Peter Strateas and Mario-Luca Carlucci will be the only locals to represent Australia at the international competition.

A $50,000 cash sponsorship was awarded to the winner of each category, so now the boys have a total of $100,000 to grow the label’s business and work toward its upcoming collection. “@strateascarlucci have done exceptionally well. They now have two collections to prepare for the final. A busy time ahead!” The Woolmark Company wrote to its Instagram.

If the creative pair go on to win the international prize against regional competitors from Europe, America, China and India, they will receive another $100,000 with the added bonus of having their designs stocked in prestigious fashion stores globally. Nothing like upper-class potential stockists, including Harvey Nichols, Saks Fifth Avenue and David Jones, to motivate Strateas.Carlucci to bring its A-game.

A study done by Oregon State University, published in the Psychology of Popular Media Culture, says that women who have sexy profile photos connected to their social media accounts are judged more harshly by their female peers. To reach their findings, researchers tapped a pool of 118 women; 58 teenagers and 60 young adults up to age 25. They created fake profiles for the imaginary “Amanda Johnson,” using different main photos for each. A volunteer provided two images: one, a high school senior portrait and the other, a racy prom picture.

For the class photo, the girl is dressed in a modest outfit, but for prom, the young lady’s showing a lot more skin. Thigh-high slit, garter belt, plunging neckline — the works. Researchers asked participants if they found each girl pretty, if she looked competent and if they would hang out with her. The image with the more modestly dressed girl was better received. The woman in the sexier picture scored lower with women, particularly on the competency front.

Of course, the long-standing patriarchal structures that conceived the Madonna/whore binary are certainly at play here. In our society, “proper” women are discouraged from overtly expressing their sexuality in a public arena. It makes sense that women brought up in this sort of climate might have negative feelings about those who post racy pictures. Women who do are deemed loose, and sometimes their humanity is overlooked completely. (more…)

We’ve been stalking Chiara Ferragni‘s shoe line for quite a while now. Can you blame us? Who doesn’t have a weakness for sparkly slippers and chain-laden booties (the latter of which I need like, right now)? The Blonde Salad blogger is bringing her shoe range to the FN Platform at the MAGIC trade show in Las Vegas next month to make its American debut. According to a press release, Chiara will be showing her offerings for the Spring 2015 season, which she says is inspired by American culture.

“As of now I live in the U.S. and I find myself totally lost in the American pop culture. I usually send inspirations to my design team while I’m traveling and then when I’m back I work closely with them, in every step of the creative work.”

What should you expect from the Italian blogger’s stateside debut? Chiara says the range is “composed by some of [her] iconic pieces and elements,” and that she will be dishing out an offering with lots of color and plenty of sparkle. Also on the menu are pointed-toe heels, sneakers and “food embroidery styles,” because nothing’s better than a great pair of shoes decorated with a rendering of your favorite snack. Each piece is named after a pop culture reference, so it will be interesting to see exactly which aspects of American culture she latched onto.

The MAGIC show will take place from August 18 to August 20 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. There, you can preview Chiara’s range along with the upcoming collections for several other brands and designers. We can’t wait to see what Chiara has in store for next season!

Yes Gisele, we would be smiling too if we found out we were worth as much as you are.

Good old Forbes magazine has sunk its claws back into Gisele’s bank balance to announce that the 33-year-old has had her most lucrative year to date, bringing home a total of $47 million (that’s a whopping $128,000 a day), which to most of us seems like an insane amount of money to be raking in on a daily basis. Although it would explain all of the decadent holiday photos she has been taking lately. Gisele often says that Forbes reports her earnings incorrectly, although not even she can deny the $35 million gap that lies between her earnings and the second highest-earning model, Miranda Kerr.

Despite her far more reserved approach to the media, Gisele is absolutely towering above models like Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss, who may party harder with more people, but are not bringing in the contracts like the Brazilian superstar. Her Instagram makes her seem like a really laid-back, holistic yoga bunny, so perhaps the early bird is truly getting the worm. While the others are crawling into cabs at 3:00 a.m., Gisele is getting up to do pilates before going to work for either H&M, Louis Vuitton, Carolina Herrera, Chanel or the other high-profile brands paying her bills.

The mother of one also recently signed new contracts with Emilio Pucci and Balenciaga, which were not even factored into Forbes’ calculations, so who knows how much the final number is. Either way, it’s impressive and the big designers clearly think so, too.